“A good cause has never tasted so good,” smiles Will Green, the founder of Mentoring Positives Inc..
Starting this Tuesday, the youths from Mentoring Positives will be offering a weekly “Muriel’s Plate,” a delicious dinner that is made by young people who are being mentored by Madison-area chefs to learn core culinary concepts that they will be able to use for the rest of their lives.
Mentoring Positives is an innovative, referral-based mentoring program that works directly with kids and families in a variety of ways in the Darbo/Worthington area and beyond. Back in May, Muriel’s Place storefront, named after Green’s late mother, became a new place on Madison’s East Side where community members can dine in and eat pizza made by Mentoring Positives students.
(Photo by A. David Dahmer)
The young people are now expanding beyond their famous Off The Block Pizza and Salsa [Which you can find at many grocery stores around town]. Muriel’s Plate is a brand-new fundraiser that will feature a different four-course meal for the next four Tuesdays. It will be an opportunity for youth to gain valuable entrepreneurial experience but also receive other vital skills, healthy recipes, and cooking essential kits to make their own meals.
Green says they have been working on this endeavor for a month and a half and that it’s “finally come to fruition.”
“Chef Ben Hunter, who works for The Deliciouser, has been helping us in the kitchen to help us with skills and the recipes. And Christine [Ameigh], from Christine’s Kitchen, has been talking to me about their models where they have these pop-up dinners and wine drinks with different foods,” Green says.
Green thought to himself, “Wow. That’s a great model.”
“I didn’t want to really have this hustling, bustling restaurant. I knew I wanted to have his kid-focused space,” Green says of Muriel’s Place. “Long story short … that’s how I came up with the concept for Muriel’s Plate. Ben [Hunter] was like ‘Let’s do these fundraiser dinners … give the kids some culinary skills of preparing meals that they will always have in their toolbox.’
“So these will be meals that the young people will be able to go to when they get older … something they can make. It gets the kids in that culinary space and it also gives us [at Muriel’s Place] an opportunity to expand a little bit to a different variety from just the pizza and the salsa.”
The week one Muriel’s Plate menu includes roast chicken, roasted winter vegetables, garden salad, and chocolate chip cookies. Next week Tuesday, on Halloween, the young people will be making and serving chili with Mentoring Positives’ salsa, cornbread, coleslaw, and baked apple crisp.
There’s an Eventbrite that community members can click on to order meals every Tuesday. The price will depend on how much food you purchase and whether you get an individual plate or a to-go family box that serves 4-6 people. Green says that they do have limited seating, so pre-ordering your tickets is recommended.
All proceeds from “Muriel’s Plate” go to the youth at Mentoring Positives.
“The revenue we get from this endeavor, we hope to pay the kids and then we are looking to have different chefs coming in,” Green says.
Families can order in that night and leave with a family pack that feeds four to six family members.
“We’ll have people coming in like every 15 minutes throughout the evening. So they’ll sit in and dine in and the kids will serve them if that’s what they want … and then the next crew of people will come in,” Green says.
The first session of Muriel’s Plates will last for four weeks — the next four Tuesdays.. Green says he hopes to continue them throughout the year. For the rest of the days, Muriel’s Place will be serving its famous pizza at its 2844 E Washington Ave. location.
“We are inviting different companies and businesses to come in to have their meetings at our space … that’s another way for people to order our pizza,” Green says. “So we are having more people have their meetings in our space. People can rent it out. It’s a beautiful space. And yeah, it’s organically turning into what I’ve always envisioned.”
And now Muriel’s Plate is a new and exciting twist going on at Muriel’s Place.
“We just want to spread the word about Muriel’s Plate. It’s a great way to support the program and kids. Food is essential throughout the community,” Green says. “So this is a way to get the kids activated because they get to meet people, serve people. interact with people, and hopefully bring more people into Muriels Place and increase the visibility. It’s all pretty exciting.”
